Free Practice 3 for the 2014 British Grand Prix

Free Practice 3 for the 2014 British Grand Prix, on the Saturday morning, was a wet affair, with rain having fallen overnight and through the morning, on and off. The GP3 session that was the first session of Saturday saw plenty of spray thrown up, and seemed very different from the warm, windy but generally dry Friday. This was the first opportunity to see the cars that weekend running in wet conditions, and with rain tyres. It is interesting to see how the different conditions and the change of tyres actually give the cars quite a different look. I was sitting at Luffield to watch Free Practice 3, rather than my usual spot at Becketts, so the angle was somewhat different too, giving an opportunity for some “car-on” views.

The cars made their way around the circuit rather more gingerly than they had in Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2, aiming to finish in good shape for qualifying a few hours later. It was not a good session for Marussia, with Max Chilton‘s session coming to an end with gearbox problems that saw a change required, and Jules Bianchi hitting a barrier at Stowe. The gearbox issue meant a grid penalty for Max for Sunday’s race. Sebastian Vettel spent some time on the grass, and Esteban Gutierrez was lucky that he caught it when the rear of his car got out of shape after touching the kerb at Copse.

Sebastian Vettel returned to the top of the timings for the first time in 2014 with the fastest time in the session, something that had become so normal in recent years, and somehow seemed unusual for this year.